The Beach

We're back from our much anticipated beach trip! The girls had a blast and so did we. Julie's mother-in-law graciously rented her condo to us and then some friends from church got condos in the same complex and we made it a group vacation! It was great. We even brought 2 babysitters with us. We felt so grown up. They kept the kids at night so the adults could go to dinner kid-free. It was the best money we spent on the vacation! It was so nice to be able to enjoy dinner and get to know our friends better without chasing kids and talking over tired, crying children.

This condo had three pools and the girls loved that. We spent the first couple of days at the beach and then a day at the pool. Matt, one of our friends, brought a jet ski with him and gave rides to whoever wanted one. The girls were all over that. Grace went first. The waves were a little rough and I thought they should ride with Matt since he was more experienced but they wanted to ride with Eric. Grace loved it until a wave pushed her and Eric over and that was the end of her excitement. Eric did get her back on but then it tipped again while he was trying to climb on. She panicked and Matt had to swim out to them to get the jet ski back to shore. Grace wouldn't get back on. Thankfully, they had life jackets on but it wasn't deep anyway. Eric could stand up and touch the bottom. Grace wanted to go again but was too scared to go with Eric and too shy to ride with Matt. Lyla, on the other hand, is afraid of nothing. She rode with Eric and Matt. Matt said she had her eyes squinted shut the whole time because the water was spraying in her face but she didn't care. He said he would ask her if she was having fun and she would just shake her head yes. Then he'd ask if she was ready to go back and she would just shake her head no, all the time having her eyes shut tight. She's our little daredevil. Grace will do most anything too but with a little coaxing.

On the last day we took the girls to Shipwreck Island, a water park. It was really fun. They had a kiddie area that they loved but they also had some "big people" water slides. The best part was that the girls were able to ride a couple of the big people rides with us. The first one we went on was a water slide that you get in a big inner tube with several people. The four of us could ride together. Grace was nervous at first. I had to drag her into the inner tube. Lyla was the first one in! Then, by chance, Grace ended up facing backward all the way down. She cried the whole way down and Lyla screamed and laughed the whole way. It was funny to watch the difference in their faces during the exact same experience. When we got to the bottom though Grace was ready to try again. She loved it after that. I think we rode that ride about 8 times that day. There was another ride that you sat on a mat to go down. You could put two people on each mat. They both loved that one too. We only rode that one twice because the line was longer and we didn't like the wait. We stayed at the park from about 11am to 5:15pm. They had so much fun. We had to force them to leave because the park closed at 5:30pm.

One little story I want to record happened the third night we were there. After we got back from dinner we got the kids ready for bed and then I decided I wanted to go to bed too. So, I went to bed and Eric finished the bedtime routine. The girls had some trouble falling asleep though. I stayed in bed and listened to the yelling match unfold and just let Eric handle it. The girls were exhausted but had taken a small nap that afternoon and I guess that messed us up at bedtime. So after he got them in bed and went downstairs Grace started yelling for him. He kept telling her to go to sleep. She kept saying she wanted me to come lay with her. He kept telling her I was asleep. Finally, he came back upstairs and all was quiet for about 5 minutes while he was talking to her. When he went back downstairs she started yelling and crying again. This time she was yelling this:

"I have to say something. It's not nice but I just have to say it. (pause) (in a dramatic cry) I hate Adam and Eve! I know it's not nice but I do. I just hate them. It's all their fault. (more pause, more dramatic crying) It's all their fault. I just hate them."

This went on for a while. Finally Eric got her quiet and asleep some how. The next day I asked Eric what that was all about and he said that when he went up there the first time he explained to her that she was being selfish by wanting to wake me up just to tell me goodnight. He told her that it was selfish to do something to make someone else uncomfortable just to help yourself. That's when she decided that it was all Adam and Eve's fault that she was selfish. She thinks that she is selfish because Adam and Eve sinned. If they hadn't disobeyed God and sinned, then we wouldn't do bad things and therefore, she wouldn't be selfish. I wish I could remember exactly everything she yelled that night. It wasn't very funny in the moment but the next morning we had a good laugh.

Overall our trip was a great vacation. We were so happy to have our friends, Anne and Greg and Matt and Liz there with us. It was so much fun to hang out and get to know each other better. Who knows? Maybe this will become an annual trip for all of us.

Thank you Lynn and Ed Corlew for sharing your great condo with us. It was the best place we could have stayed!